


Decisions

by finereluctance



Series: Brothers [2]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Cooper Anderson is Neal Caffrey, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-12
Updated: 2013-11-12
Packaged: 2018-01-01 05:52:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1041112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finereluctance/pseuds/finereluctance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal made a decision without enough thought as to what it would mean for his life, but he didn’t regret it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Decisions

***

“You do know this is a bad idea, right?” Mozzie asked. There was half a glass of wine in his hand, which Neal suspected was probably his third or fourth of the evening.

“Of course it is,” he would admit that much. It was a bad idea, but it was the best situation for Blaine and that’s what really mattered in the end. Neal’s life was already one big mess of complicated, so the addition of Blaine to the mix a year earlier than intended wouldn’t disrupt it too much. He hoped. “But did I really have another choice?”

Mozzie looked at him as if he was being purposely difficult, which Neal was. “You could have let him go to that private school of his in Ohio and been big brother from a distance like you always have.”

“He would have been miserable there, Moz. And after everything,” he gestured to his leg and the cane beside his chair, “it’ll be nice to have him around for some normalcy.”

“He doesn’t know about that, though. And you can’t tell him,” the older man warned him. “If you tell him too much it puts all of us at risk.”

“Of course,” Neal agreed easily, “but I’ll have to tell him some of it… he deserves that much.”

“Well keep me out of it,” Mozzie finished the glass and filled another. “I already have enough trouble with the Suit.”

Neal sighed and took the bottle to pour himself a glass. “We’re just going to give Peter the story that Blaine is staying with June on a school exchange. He can’t know who Blaine is, none of them can.”

“That secret is safe with me, Neal. You know I like the little one, even if he isn’t so little anymore.” A promise from Mozzie meant a lot. As a master of words and manipulating them, Mozzie was always careful not to over-commit to anything or get himself caught in a promise. The confirmation that Blaine’s identity was safe was a relief. Not that Neal really thought Mozzie would do anything with the information, but in their line of work… well, one never really knows if they can trust someone one hundred percent of the time. 

“How are you going to get to his performances and stuff?” Mozzie’s question snapped Neal out of his thoughts. “The Suit is going to wonder why you’re suddenly spending so much time with a high school exchange student, and they perform all over the city, not just here in Manhattan. Lest you forget, that’s outside your radius.”

“I’ll figure that out when I need to,” Neal replied easily. “I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Blaine will be living here. I haven’t lived with him in almost ten years… what if he decides he hates me? What if he doesn’t forgive me for lying to him about where I’ve been the last few years?”

Mozzie wasn’t usually the type to coddle or comfort, but it had been a strange day so what was one more bit of odd behavior? “He’ll forgive you, Neal. He’s family, they’re supposed to love you unconditionally.”

“My mom didn’t,” Neal pointed out. “Did you know she tells people that I died so they don’t ask about me anymore?”

The grimace on his friend’s face was answer enough to that. “Blaine isn’t like that, though. He wrote to you twice a week while you were in prison, you know.”

“I remember, I got the letters,” he replied simply. “Hand delivered whenever you visited. It was the best part of my week in there.” Blaine’s letters about school, music, and his fencing club were really the only thing that had gotten him through the year he spent in prison. Mozzie had carried the letters in and out for him to keep them out of the hands of the FBI and warden, though the guards would do a quick read to make sure there was nothing of concern in their contents. There never was.

“Well then, don’t forget that.”

There was a long moment of comfortable, introspective silence that Neal welcomed as he gathered his thoughts. “Hey Moz,” he started, “I don’t know if I ever said thanks for taking care of him and all the paperwork when I was locked up… but thanks. I really appreciated it.”

“It wasn’t anything,” Mozzie waved him off with his wine glass. “I just had to arrange some accounts and make a quick trip to Ohio… wasn’t even there a week.”

“But still, thanks. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t there to help.”

Mozzie smirked, “If I remember correctly, you were plotting to break out to get to him. That route would not have ended well for you.”

Neal laughed, “Yeah, you’re probably right. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight with my kid brother in the hospital. It’ll be better for him here, though. He’ll have school to focus on, and his boyfriend just moved here…”

“You mentioned that before. What do you know about the boyfriend?” Mozzie was already reaching for Neal’s laptop before he had even finished the question.

“Kurt’s a good kid, Moz. You won’t find anything bad about him on there,” Neal smiled, their reflexes so similar after years of friendship and working together.

“I take it you already checked him out, then?” Mozzie asked knowingly.

“First thing I did when Blaine told me about him,” Neal admitted. “The biggest thing about the kid is that his dad is a congressman from Ohio, but he’s clean too.”

“A congressman!” Mozzie was shocked at the news. “No congressman is clean! He’s working for the government!”

Neal just smiled and shook his head, “No really, Moz. He’s a good guy as far as I can tell, and really protective of Kurt and Blaine… I’m glad he was there for them in Lima, because god knows my mom and step-father weren’t.”

“He might have been a good guy when he went in to Congress,” Mozzie had enough wine that he wouldn’t be put off the topic too easily, “but being part of the government structure does things to people.”

Again Neal shook his head, but he let Mozzie have his rant, tuning him out and only nodding when he needed to. He had a lot to figure out and only a week until Blaine was due to land in New York, but he had the sense that it was all going to work out.


End file.
